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TO ALL WHO-M IT MAY CONCERN` Be it known-that I, JAMES L. HOWARD, of the city and State of New York, have invented a certain new and useful device for a Clothes-Line Hook, of which the following specification, together with the accomvpanying drawing, embraces a full and clear description.

Figure 1 is a vertical mid section, and

Figure Q'an end view or elevation.

My device, as seen, is composed of z1- rectangular bracket, A, to be screwed or otherwise rigidly fixed to a. post or wall, and having, as part of itself, the hook B, the opening between whose jaws-is next the surface of support represented by red line :u 2:, and between the jaws is a concave roller, C, turning on a vertical axis, substantially asshown.

Now, the operation is as-follows: One end of a clothes-line having been secured at some given point, and any desired number of my hooks having been rigidly ailixed to proper supports, and at proper heights on either side of a yard or enclosure, or to the walls of two opposite buildings, for example; the biglit of the line is readily dropped into one ofthe hooks, then into another opposite, whether diagonally or direct, as will be understood, for a sufficient length of line, when, owingto the facility afforded by the anti-i`rictional action of the roller C, the line may be thoroughly tautened and secured, then and at any time thereafter, by a single person, at a single operation, from either extremity of the line, withoutl moving from hook to hook, which could not be done in the use of any common hooli'or staple, not to mention that in the use of the latter the line has to bc passed through each by its end, and reeved taut span by span, from hook to hook, or staple to staple, and the same trouble is involved in taking the line down, not to mention the strain tending to bend the ordinary hooksineither operation by the friction, andthe corresponding fraying of the line by the consequent abrasion. Further, in the use' of ordinary hooks the lines are frequently damaged by corrosion, which I obviate by making the roller C' of some non-corrosive' material, such as hard woo-l, (but with a metal bushing,) and against which only the line bears; and to secure'this latter point the periphery of the roller is made concave, as shown. To prevent the line, with or without clothes upon it, from being thrown off by vibration, during a high wind, for instance, its teraninal'jaw d is of such length as to project considerably beyond the roller, as shown. -By the use of the rollers, supposing the extremities of the linevto be` properly attached to eachother, but otherwise free, th-e line can be hauled around through its hooks, andif clothes Awere suspended along a single span or reach of it only, such clothes could be conveniently removed from a single standpoint. It will be seen, fig. 2, that the outer eid or bow" et' the hookl is concaved at each side opposite e e to a greater citent than the concavity ot` the roller, so that the line maybe clear of the metal of the hook at this point as elsewhere.v Of course these bracketed' hooks, being intended to be screwed to their point of support, can be readily removed from place to place.

Having now fully described my device, what I claim is A clothes-line hookf' constituted of a rigid bracket extending into the form of a hook, between the jaws of which thereis embraced and supported n roller of non-corrosive material, turning on a. vertical, or nearly vertical, axis, the whole being combined and applied substantially as described for the purposes explained.

JAMES L. HOWARD.

Witnesses:

FREDERIC W. FORD, WILLIAM H. MONTGOMERY. 

